PORT ST. LUCIE – Last spring, Paul Lo Duca mentioned he had right-hand tendinitis that routinely flared up in the opening part of spring training. The Mets catcher received a measure of treatment for the condition yesterday.

The All-Star got a cortisone shot in the hand, something he’s done for six straight years.

“He’ll probably miss a day or two just to let it calm down and make sure,” Willie Randolph said. “But it’s early and it’s something very, very minor.”

Lo Duca was not available yesterday to speak about the situation. But early last March, he said the hand was “just a chronic thing,” that, “It’s usually an issue early in spring training and then it goes away.”

Randolph said, “He gets a shot every year, and I think what he likes to try to do is wait until he gets down here to check with us first, and then once he gets a shot, it’s like a little tendinitis thing, get a little cortisone, and he’s good to go.”

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Billy Wagner, who primarily throws fastballs and sliders, said yesterday he has nurtured a pitch that sounds like a combination of a splitter and a changeup.

“It’s not a true split,” the closer said. “It’s got the split grip, but it comes out more like a changeup.”

Wagner said he could throw the pitch in a game and thinks it can make for easier innings. He worked on it in the offseason.

Two new pitchers will be headed to Mets’ minor-league spring training; left-hander Mike Bynum and righty Jose Santiago have signed deals. Bynum didn’t pitch last season due to Tommy John surgery, but with the Tigers’ Double-A and Triple-A teams in 2005, he went 5-1 with a 4.26 ERA in 13 games.

Santiago, who pitched in four games for the Mets in 2005, was in the Mexican League last year and went 7-7 with a 4.55 ERA.